Legislation last week was prefiled to help small businesses finance commercial property energy efficiency improvements. House Bill 227 builds off of a program enabling commercial property owners to obtain fixed-rate, long-term financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
Rep. Calvin Schrage (Anchorage) says the bill would expand the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program:
“C-PACE, Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy is an innovative program that lowers the cost of capital and increases access to financing so that we can better invest in our communities. There were a few too many requirements and red tape around that initiative. This bill, HB 227, loosens up some of those requirements and allows this program to be better utilized. It allows for new construction financing, which was really key. Many of the projects that we’ve seen wanting to utilize this financing means have been interested in new projects. I think this is an important change that will allow for new construction to utilize this financing mechanism. It allows for resiliency projects to be included in the definitions or a list of types of projects that would be approved for this type of financing. It allows for C-PACE refinancing for projects recently completed, allows for the consideration of market values rather than just assessed values, and then it eliminates the savings-to-investment ratio.”
Schrage responded to some concerns regarding not having safeguards in place as originally established in 2017:
“Frankly we wouldn’t know though because we put so many safeguards in place the first time that no one’s been able to utilize the program. We’ve had many people that have been interested, but there is so much red tape, so many safeguards that they haven’t actually been able to take advantage of this financing mechanism yet.”
Rep. Schrage said HB 227 would allow municipalities and boroughs statewide to achieve greater overall and environmental and economic benefits. The bill passed on a 31-4 vote and was transmitted to the state Senate for consideration.
Transcribed audio courtesy of KTOO 360TV.
